If there’s one thing we can take solace in, it’s the knowledge that our struggles don’t catch God off guard. He sees them, understands them, and has a purpose behind each one.
Choose How You Feel
It’s all about choices, isn’t it? I’m not sure why so many struggle with this. Because … you choose the quality of your life. You aren’t a dog, zebra, aardvark, lungfish, or amoeba. You don’t operate on instinct. You have the power to choose.
Encourage One Another
Encouragement is like a heavenly boomerang. You toss it out there, and it comes swinging back, often right when you need it the most. But what about those times when you’re standing there, arm outstretched, and nothing comes back?
You can always choose the quality of your life.
In spite of the flow of time, I can make choices as how to use it. Things around me change all the time. I just need to make wise decisions in the midst of all that change. I am not powerless. I can choose.
No shame to ask for prayer.
The thing is, it’s not like faking being sick to get out of school or work. I’ve been having to fake being well.
Embracing self-pity.
If you’re going to embrace self-pity, you might as well embrace misery. It’s a funny thing. Some people simply seem to enjoy feeling bad for themselves. Respectfully, if that’s true of you, I have a simple question: How has self-pity helped you improve your life? I get it. I do. This is one of those […]
7 life rules for 2023
It seems that some “life rules” for this new year might be in order. There’s nothing magical about these, but they seem pretty appropriate. Fact is, they’re good life rules for any year.
Lessons from the little drummer boy.
I’ll start with a confessional. Sometimes, Christmas music gets on my nerves. But before you call the grinch squad on me, I’ll explain. And I will use The Little Drummer Boy as a jumping off place.
I love Christmas carols. Love ‘em. I might listen to them year round. But some of the secular stuff can really wear thin. White Christmas? Good with that. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day? Check – I like it.
But Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree? Santa Baby? Mariah Carey? The whole Bob Dylan Christmas album, which is like some sort of surreal fever dream? No thanks, ma‘am.
Then there’s The Little Drummer Boy. More carol than secular. And for some reason I’ve done a deep dive with this one recently.
How to suffer well.
Christianity doesn’t give us a free pass out of suffering. You will suffer. I guarantee it. It’s right and proper to acknowledge you’re hurting, and hurting bad. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean your suffering will be any easier or more endurable What it does mean is that you can see your suffering as one point in a timeline that stretches out into eternity. For Christians, that means that the best is still ahead of us.
Broken us. 10 principles.
We are all broken in some fashion, aren’t we? And brokenness can manifest itself in broken relationships.
This is a theme I tend to return to often, Broken relationships are just excruciating. Let’s suss this out, and let me see if we can get some guidance here.
Moving from brokenness to wholeness.
This “brokenness to wholeness” paradigm is a pony I’m riding hard these days. Why? Because I’m seeing broken Christians everywhere I turn, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. So in these days I want to contribute to the Kingdom by addressing this, and even providing some tools to move hurting believers in […]
Return to wholeness.
Through my service in Christian ministry for 40+ years, I’ve seen so many believers stall out in their faith – they spend their days frustrated, defeated, and even desperate. Broken, in other words. The fulfilling Christian life that others seem to experience eludes them.I know what I’m talking about – you could count me among that number.